I live in a country that has treated me extremely well. I’ve benefited from a ton of free services paid with taxpayer money including education and healthcare so I feel the responsibility to do my part and pay my taxes.
However every single one of my close relatives expects special treatment and assumes I’m going to accept the payment “under the table” but I don’t and I’ve made it clear from the beginning. They refuse to accept it even when it’s for no extra cost to them. It’s me whose losing money, not them. Still - the idea of me daring to charge them like “regular” people apparently is totally outrageous to them.
I try to be the change I want to see in the world. I judge moral questions by imagining wether the world would be a better or a worse place if everyone else acted like I do. I believe that doing things by the book is the right thing to do here. I understand where they’re coming from and it’s okay to ask but when I say no then it is so. They’re free to use someone else’s services who doesn’t pay their taxes if that’s what they want.
Now I’m basically at the point where no matter what I do someone is going to be unhappy. Ideally I would refuse all work to relatives but that too is going to leave them unhappy. Do I really need to let go of my own morals here so that I’m not seen as a complete asshole by everyone around me?
It doesn’t even seem to be about money. In the latest case I was going to charge 3hrs + supplies for refurbishing a table that I spent closer to 6 hours working on. They were perfectly willing to pay the amount I was asking for but for some reason they just seem to hate the idea of receiving a bill in the mail instead of me accepting the money right there and then.
Can’t you just accept the immediate cash payment, but make sure that it’s recorded correctly in your accounts.
I don’t know where you live, but the tax law I’m familiar with doesn’t care if the customer received a bill in the post or even if they recieved a bill at all. The critical thing is that all payments received within the tax period are declared.
You could still produce a copy of the bill for your records and even a receipt for the payment if it makes you feel better.